Gordon ignites Louisiana Tech in 77-66 win over UTSA

RUSTON – Andrew Gordon came off the bench to record a career-high 14 points and 12 rebounds, igniting a late run in the second half to help Louisiana Tech secure a 77-66 victory over UTSA on Friday night inside the Thomas Assembly Center on Karl Malone Court.

LA Tech (10-4, 3-2 C-USA) found itself down by six midway through the second half, but finished the game out on a massive 21-4 run to pull out their 10th win of the season.

“Our offense wasn’t pretty tonight,” said head coach Eric Konkol. “We were missing some guys and we were missing some guys within the game. We were able to find a way. Sometimes, you just have to find a way whether it is by design or not.

“We started off well, but had stretches there in the middle 20 where we turned the ball over a lot. We’ve got to clean that up. UTSA got loose offensively. Then at the end of the game, we were able to take care of the basketball better. And we got to the free throw line a lot and made a good percentage.”

It was a contest where the Bulldogs controlled the first 10 minutes. Then UTSA (5-7, 1-4 C-USA) had the upper hand in the middle 20 minutes. And the home team snatched the momentum right back in the final 10 minutes.

The ‘Dogs jumped out to a 25-12 advantage after Isaiah Crawford converted an and-one with 9:44 to play in the first stanza. After the squad made 10 of their first 18 field goal attempts, they ended the half by making just two of their final 14 shots.

UTSA took advantage, forcing six turnovers during the stretch to help them put together a 20-2 run and grab a five-point edge in the process. Exavian Christon connected on LA Tech’s first three of the night and JaColby Pemberton followed with two free throws to tie things up at halftime, 32-32.

After Jhivvan Jackson was held to six points at the midway point, the all-time leading scorer in UTSA history erupted for 19 second half points with 17 of those coming in the first 10 minutes of the stanza.

His scoring partner, Keaton Wallace, made three straight free throws to give the Roadrunners their largest lead of the game at 62-56 with 9:40 to go. However, the Bulldogs started to get stops and make a run, trailing by only one with five minutes ago.

That’s when Gordon took over, scoring 10 of LA Tech’s final 14 points, including two thunderous dunks. On the defensive end, the Bulldogs held the Roadrunners to just two made field goals during the 21-4 run to close out game one of the series.

“[Gordon] got ignited and he ignited our team with big rebounds,” said Konkol. “He ran the floor hard. He was posting and creating lanes for guys to get to the basket. He played a monster game, had a huge second half and really propelled us to victory.”

Amorie Archibald was honored with a commemorative basketball to honor his 1,000 career points. He climbed up the scoring ladder some more on Friday with a team-high and season-high 19 points.

JaColby Pemberton came one point shy of tying his career-high, posting 18 points. The senior led the way for the ‘Dogs at the foul line, making 11 of his 12 attempts (team shot a season-high 88.9 percent from the charity stripe, going 24-of-27).

Isaiah Crawford, getting the start in place of an injured Kalob Ledoux, was the fourth in double-figures with 11. Cobe Williams was also a key contributor with a season-high in assists (6) and boards (8).

For the eighth time in the last nine games, LA Tech held its opponent to less than 40 percent shooting. UTSA went 26-of-68 for 38.2 percent, getting 25 points from Jackson and 18 from Wallace.

“Physically, we have to be able to recover,” said Konkol. “We had some guys play a lot of minutes. We had four guys play over 30. It is what we needed to do to win this game tonight. We have to be able to recover physically and turn the page mentally. We have to play better tomorrow.”

LA Tech and UTSA face off in game two on Saturday at 6 p.m. in the TAC. The game will be live streamed on ESPN+.

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